A Harper's Education

A sexually charged look into the lives of the privileged high school students at Harper's Preparatory. A modern-day tragedy, this story touches on the intimate details of high school struggles while weaving together a cast of characters whose actions lead to disaster.

Please note, this is nothing like my previous novel, Screaming in the Silence. There will be sexually explicit scenes and violence so I have classified it as erotica even though it may be considered more of a young adult themed piece. New chapters will be arriving nearly every day so please excuse me if I don't update everyone who comments.

Chapters:

Sterling woke up to Laila's light breathing. He rolled onto his
side and stared at her from across the room. Her head was resting
gently on her pillow, her strawberry blonde waves flowing over
everything they touched. Her lips were parted slightly, a faint
smile resting on the corners. Sterling didn't want to, but he
knew he had to get up. Glancing at the clock on the wall, he
already knew Alistair and he would be late to meet their parents.
But that didn't faze him. Last night had been worth it. Waking up
to Laila's perfect face, undisturbed and wonderfully peaceful,
was excuse enough not to set an alarm clock.

He slid out of the bed, quiet as a whisper, and made his way to
Laila's desk. The girl already had her books organized and her
notebooks assigned. Purple Post-its were carefully lined up,
telling her exactly where to go and what to bring her first day
of class. He picked up a pen and jotted a note for her, silently
removing it from the pad and pressing it to her nightstand before
he left the room.

You look beautiful in the morning. I can't wait to see you
again…

Sterling passed only a few people on his walk back to his
dormitory that morning. Most were girls, doing their walk of
shame, mascara smeared on their face, shoes in their hands. When
he finally made it to his room, he lifted the tie from the door
knob and let himself in.

Alistair was lying on his back, his arms behind his head, a
crooked smile on his face and his eyes closed. But as he heard
the door shut, his eyes flew open and he began to scramble to the
head of his bed.

"Jesus, man! What the fuck do you think the tie is for?"

Sterling looked at the bottom of the bed and saw two manicured
feet sliding under the covers to stay out of sight.

"Still? It's 9 in the morning and you two have had all night."

Alistair gave him a guilty grin. "Morning wood," he said with a
casual shrug of his shoulders. "She offered to take care of it
for me."

"Alistair, you're such an asshole!" Rebecca's familiar voice came
from under the covers of his bed.

"Good morning, Rebecca." Sterling said, not being one to overlook
decent exchanges of greetings just because the circumstances were
less than formal.

"Morning, Sterling." Rebecca's brown curls bounced as she slid up
the bed and rested her head on Alistair's chest, a proud smile on
her face. Alistair twirled a strand around his finger before
sitting up and kissing her forehead.

"Babe, Sterling and I have to leave. We're expected at our
parent's place in less than an hour."

"All right, I get it," Rebecca said, reaching for her shorts
which were hanging from Alistair's bed frame. Alistair knew that,
more than anything, Rebecca wanted an invitation to go with them.
She had for years been asking to meet his parents but he had
always refused. The second he brought a girl home to see them,
they would push for an engagement and start making the
arrangements right then and there. Not that spending the rest of
his life with Rebecca would be such a bad thing. He could be
stuck with someone like Kalyn, who, although incredibly hot, was
more annoying than a gnat in iced tea. But Alistair didn't want
to commit. He knew he could have Rebecca anytime he wanted, spend
as much time with her as he pleased, in and out of bed. But what
if something better came along?

Rebecca pulled her shorts on and leaned in to kiss him. He let
her, not caring that his brother was in the room, not caring that
he had yet to brush his teeth and his breath still tasted like
alcohol.

Alistair kissed her again and smiled at her. Of course they
would. It was what they did.

Rebecca answered him with an excited grin. She hopped off the bed
and skipped past Sterling on her way out the door.

Sterling waited until the door had closed until he began
reprimanding his twin brother. "That girl is going to kill
herself one day because of you. How many times are you going to
break her heart before you realize you two belong together?"

"Belong together? Please, you sound like Mom. And she knows what
she's getting every time she comes home with me."

Sterling rolled his eyes and went to his closet, picking out a
clean shirt and a pair of cargo shorts.

"Where did you stay last night, anyway?" Alistair stood up and
stretched before finding some clean underwear from his drawer.

"Tennille's room, as usual."

"Tennille's room? Was her new roommate there? God, that girl was
hot."

"Laila? Yeah, she was there." Sterling smiled. Of course she had
been there. He would have slept in the common room if she hadn't
been.

"And. How was she? I bet she can fuck like a college girl. All
those west coast girls can."

"You have never slept with anyone who lived west of Ohio, so how
would you know?"

"So I've heard," Alistair answered, winking at his brother.

Sterling rolled his eyes and tossed a clean pair of socks onto
Alistair's bed. His brother hadn't done laundry in weeks, packing
all his dirty clothes in his suitcase and waiting until the dire
end to take them to a Laundromat.

"Thanks," Alistair sat on the bed and pulled the socks on. "But
you didn't answer my question. How was she?"

"I wouldn't know. She made me stay in Tennille's bed."

Alistair threw his head back and laughed. "That's so shitty!"

"I'm pretty sure she's a virgin. A far cry from most of the girls
at this place."

"That's the damn truth," Alistair said, counting in his head just
how many of the girls at Harper's he had deflowered. It wasn't as
many as Julian Polk, but a number worth bragging about,
nonetheless.

"I don't know. There's definitely something different about her."

Alistair looked at his brother. Sterling usually didn't want to
talk about the girls he was interested in. Probably because he
hadn't been interested in a girl for a very long time. Sure, he
would mess around with one every now and then, but unlike
Alistair, he wasn't eager to share the details of his conquests.

"You like her, don't you?"

Sterling turned his back on his brother and reached for his
deodorant, waiting until he had applied it before speaking again.

"So what if I do?"

Alistair smiled from his bed, leaning over and tying his shoes.
Sterling hadn't been the same since his heart had been ripped
from his chest and tacked to the wall for all of the school to
see. Alistair knew Sterling wasn't the type of guy who could
dismiss girls as easily as he could. He often made fun of his
brother, telling him he would be more interesting if he got laid
more often. But secretly, he had wanted Sterling to find someone
new, someone to take his mind off his ex.

"So, I think that's great."

Sterling turned around and looked at his brother. Alistair had
never been one for relationships but everything about his
statement had seemed sincere.

"Thanks, Al."

"You're welcome. Now, let's go. Mom's going to kill us when we
get there so we might as well get it over with."

Sterling nodded in agreement and grabbed his car keys from his
desk. Knowing Alistair, he was probably still drunk from the
night before.

***

"Oh my God! What did the note say?"

Laila blushed and handed it to her roommate.

"You look beautiful in the morning. I can't wait to see you
again! Shit, girl, you've already got this boy wrapped around
your finger!" Tennille smiled proudly at her roommate who had
seemed so shy only yesterday.

"I don't know if it's really like that. He was just trying to be
sweet."

"Exactly! Sterling Pierce isn't sweet. Sure he's nice and a
gentleman. But no girl would actually describe him as sweet. He
usually doesn't give anyone a second glance, even if he's trying
to sleep with them."

"Do you think that's all he's doing with me? Trying to get me
into bed?"

"I seriously doubt it. If he didn't get into your panties last
night, he would have given up already. But this," Tennille waved
the purple post-it note wildly in front of Laila. "This is ground
breaking!"

Laila laughed. She couldn't help it. Her head was telling her to
keep away from Sterling, but her heart and her body didn't want
to allow that. The goofy grin hadn't left her face since she woke
up that morning and read his note. She couldn't wait to see him
again.